An election monitoring group, YIAGA Africa, has advised Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use Saturday’s Governorship Election in Osun State as a test for 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
YIAGA gave the advice in Osogbo, on Thursday, while presenting its final pre-election observation report on Osun Governorship Election.
Executive Director of the group, Samson Itodo, noted that Saturday’s election in Osun state provided a good opportunity for INEC to build on its successes.
He added that the marked improvements, particularly as witnessed in the Ekiti election, could help build citizens’ confidence in INEC’s internal processes.
He said: “Being the last major election before the 2023 general elections, the July 16 polls is an opportunity for INEC to build citizens’ confidence and gain the trust of Nigerians ahead of the 2023 general elections. Thus, it is crucial that the logistics of the election and the technology employed by INEC function optimally”.
Itodo cautioned the electoral body against overestimating its capacity without working to resolve identified challenges that could undermine its conduct of elections in Nigeria.
He said Nigerians and the international community had hopes and expectations that must not be dashed, especially with regard to credibility of elections delivered by INEC.
“The voters in Osun and Yiaga Africa expect that INEC and security agencies will deliver credible, peaceful and conclusive elections bereft of challenges of election logistics, technological failures, inconsistent application of electoral laws and guidelines, electoral violence and vote-buying”, he said.
Also speaking, a board member of YIAGA Africa, Ezenwa Nwagwu, noted some areas, identified through the Long Term Observation Method employed by Yiaga, that could negatively affect the election.
The areas included: inadequate information about relocated polling units; imbalance in the distribution of voters to polling units; election security/potential election day violence; deployment of new technology; vote merchandizing; state action against vote buying and logistics deployment.
Nwagwu said lack of information about relocation of some voters to new polling units could disenfranchise them if they were unable to locate their polling unit on election day.
He said there were also some oversized polling units above the threshold of 750 registered voters per unit, which could lead to logistical challenges for INEC on election day.
The board member commended INEC’s deployment of technology to promote credibility of its processes but called on it to work on lapses already identified.
He added that INEC should disaggregate PVC data collected per unit, since it would be used to determine the margin of lead in the election.
Nwagwu said: “Yiaga Africa hopes that the commission will build on the success in Ekiti by addressing shortfalls, capacity gaps and technology challenges encountered in Ekiti and during the Osun mock exercise.
“It is imperative that INEC publishes the final disaggregated data of the number of PVCs collected per polling unit on the eve of the election.
“Yiaga Africa urges INEC to fulfil its promise to make available these disaggregated figures of PVCs collected by polling units on its social media platforms and website”.
While calling on the security agencies to be professional in arresting any violent situation, Nwagwu harped on the need for state action to be more stringent on those apprehended for voter inducement.
Also speaking, YIAGA Africa’s Director of Programmes, Cynthia Mbamalu, said the group would deploy its Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology for the election.
She said PVT employs well established statistical principles and sophisticated information technologies to provide timely and accurate information on all the electoral processes.
Her words: “Yiaga Africa will deploy 500 stationary observers to a representative statistical sample of 250 polling units and 32 mobile observers located in all 30 LGAs of Osun state.
“Yiaga Africa will also deploy 30 collation centre observers to each of the LGA Collation Centers. The sampled polling units were determined by established statistical principles to ensure the resulting information is representative of the state and unbiased.
“The PVT sample of polling units was drawn according to well-established statistical principles and is truly representative of all of the polling units because the percentage of sampled polling units for each LGA is similar to the percentage of all polling units for each LGA”.
Recommendations
The report recommended that INEC should be alive to its role as the lead coordinator on election day for prompt deployment of election materials among its other duties.
Yiaga Africa called on security agencies deployed for the election to respect the rights of citizens, media, and observers, including the right to freedom of movement on Election Day for duly accredited observers and media practitioners.
Security agencies should ensure protection for vulnerable voters, especially women and persons with disabilities.
It recommended that security personnel enforce appropriate sanctions for any form of violation of the Electoral Act on Election Day, especially ensuring arrest of any one posing a threat to the right of others to vote.
Peace Accord
Yiaga Africa also called on Political parties and candidates to commit to the terms of their Peace accord and ensure peaceful engagement ahead of the election and on election day and to refrain from vote buying.
It recommended that CSOs continually engage the electoral process to inspire citizens’ confidence in the election and to encourage voters to turn out in their numbers and vote on election day.
The report also recommended that citizens get involved in the process to increase participation and turnout on election day.
It further urged them to resist efforts to purchase their votes and to vote according to their preferences on Saturday.
N.O
